Natural Born Salesperson or Just a Blowhard?

I know, I know.
I’m guilty, guilty, guilty.
I guess I’m just an old blowhard.

I am forever telling you readers—if I still have any readers—how to sell.

I tell you what to do, but I rarely remember to tell you what not to do. Frankly, not doing some things is far more important than what you do.

So this brief snippet will tell you what not to do:

Don’t be a blowhard.

One definition of a “blowhard” is a person that is known to rant and rave about things. Their opinions are usually ignorant and lack evidence to back them up. The term comes from the literal meaning of “blowing hard.” If you blow hard enough, people pretty much have to listen.

We’ve all known blowhards and we know how annoying they can be. Many blowhards reside in sales departments. They believe they are good at talking and are impressed by themselves, so they blow hard about everything. They argue, “I’m sooo good at talking. I’m just a natural born salesman.”

Silence can be such an elegant thing. It can be beautiful.

Another dictionary says a blowhard is someone who boasts excessively and is exaggerative about his or her imagined talents or abilities. These are people who thinks they know something that others do not. Blowhards are akin to name-droppers.

The dictionary I referred to goes on to give us examples of famous blowhards. I’m sure I’ll get in trouble for this, but blogging is risky business and remember, it’s a dictionary that’s atalkin’—not your pure, sweet innocent Mañana Man.

The tome notes, “Famous blowhards include Glenn Beck and Dr. Phil. Bill O’Reilly from Fox News is a blowhard. Many members of the U.S. Congress are blowhards.”

The dictionaries are confused about the name of this mental condition. Is it one word [blowhard], hyphenated [blow-hard] or is it two words [as in blow hard]?

Harris DeWese is the author of "Now Get Out There and Sell Something." He is chairman/CEO at Compass Capital Partners and an author of the annual "Compass Report," the definitive source of info regarding printing industry M&A activity. DeWese has completed 100-plus printing company transactions and is viewed as the preeminent deal maker in the industry. He specializes in investment banking, M&A, sales, marketing and management services to printers.